The Lighting Time Table

To read the entire tutorial, you can just click on the first link and then continue to the next section at the bottom of each page. Or, you can select links below of interest to you.

PRE 1900 SECTION

Overcoming Obstacles
About Early Electric Lighting, Generators, Arc Lamps, The First Edison Socket, Menlo Park, etc.
The First Fixtures
About The Start Of The First Incandescent Lighting Fixtures
Light Reflection
About Early Light Bulbs And Candle Power vs. WATTS
Edison-Bergmann
About Sigmund Bergmann And The Start Of Bergmann And Company Lighting Fixtures
Lighting Break Down
A Quick Break Down Of Different Lighting Time Periods
Styles 1881 to 1884
Bergmann Fixtures And Styles
Other Pre-1888 Styles
About Early Companies That Sold Lighting Systems And The Fixtures That They Sold With Their Lighting Systems
The U.S. Elect. Co.
The United States Electric Company History And Early Items
The Brush Elect. Co.
The Brush Electric Company History And Early Items
Thomson-Houston
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company History And Early Items
Westinghouse
About The Westinghouse Manufacturing Company History And Early Mergers
Mid 1880's Styles
About The Start Of Electrical Supply Houses and how new lighting styles came about
Pre 1900 Sockets
About Early Light Sockets And How To Tell The Difference
1887 New Items
1888 New Items
1890 New Items
1891 New Items
1892 New Items
1893 New Items
1894-1896 Items
1897 New Items
1898 New Items
1899 New Items
Above are catalog items sold in different years. There is no space to duplicate items, so only new and unique items from each year are shown. You would need to view the catalogs for yourself to be complete as I am only highlighting items. You can view catalogs here.

EXTRA INFO
Victor Shade Holder
About The Victor Shade Holder, Atwood And The Standard Holder

I.P. Frink 1899 Items
About Frink & Wheeler
New Wheeler Inverted
Three Links About Mirror Reflector Manufacturers And Their Items And History.
Wheeler Reflector Co.
NEW - A history of The Wheeler Reflector Company and tips on how to tell if mirror has been replaced on a shade

Early Desk Lamps
Some Help In Telling Them Apart

Vitrite And Luminoid
About The Vitrite Holders And Early Vitrite History

Brush-Swan Holder
About Brush-Swan Shade Holders

Cord Balls
My cord pendant adjuster project, as well as a good history about them.

POST 1900 SECTION

About 1900 Styles
This section covers a basic into into the 1900 section covering information about the 1899 transition, electrical code changes, lighting influence, sharing and licensing of patents and then into the new section of electrical specialty manufacturers,

Electrical Specialty Manufacturers
Harvey Hubbell
This section covers some early history periods of pre Hubbell-Grier, Hubbell-Grier, Harvey Hubbell, Hubbell Company. It also covers a number of items that helped change lighting styles,

Benjamin
This section covers some early history periods for the Benjamin Electric MFG. Co, as well as a small section on Dale and The Federal Electric Company
Dale
Federal Electric

This post 1900 section continues to be under current construction

Please Check Back.

Notes:
1967 - The death was announced of a well known local manufacturer. 82 year old Walter Abbe Jr. of South Windham, died at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London. Abbe was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., December 16, 1884, a son of Walter and Ida (Patton) Abbe. In 1909 he graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he received an engineering degree. Walter Abbe Jr. had served as president of the Smith & Winchester Manufacturing Company of South Windham, builders of heavy paper-making machinery from 1923 to 1954. He then became chairman of the board until the business was merged with the Cameron Machine Company of Dover, Delaware in June, 1966. Abbe was a trustee emeritus of the Windham Hospital, past member and president of the Willimantic Rotary Club, a member of the Mayflower society, president of the Guilford Smith Memorial Library from 1931 to 1966

Patent No. / Links	Description / Notes	Patent Picture
1020245	Electric Lamp Socket
Patent Class: 200/51.17	Inventor: Walter Abbe Patent Applied For: 06/09/1911 Patent Approved On: 03/12/1912 Witnesses: M. A. Freedman Hubert Howson
This socket was to be an improved switch mechanism, with the contacts well separated from each other. It also provided a quadruple break at the circuit.

Elihu Thomson was born in Manchester, England in 1853. He came to the United States with his parents at the age of five and was raised and educated in Philadelphia. After graduation from High School, Thomson returned to his alma mater as a teacher of physics and chemistry. He joined with Edwin Houston, a fellow teacher, experimenting in things such as arc-lighting and centrifugal force. They made several inventions and improvements in both fields. He began work at the American Electric Company in 1882. He eventually founded the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and ultimately took over the business of his previous employer. He continued work in many important fields including arc lamps, transformers, electric motors, and the Thomson electric meter. Thomson also patented an electrical welding process. In 1888, Thomson founded a second company, Thomson Electric Welding, of Lynn, Massachusetts. Thomson attended Yale after this merger and then continued on to Tufts where he received a Ph.D. He worked steadily on with the General Electric Company in Lynn, Massachusetts as director of the electrical division until his death in 1937. His career spanned five decades during which Thomson was granted 696 United States patents. Source

Edwin J. Houston (1847�1914) was an American electrical inventor. He helped design an arc light generator with Elihu Thomson. The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was formed in 1883 from the merger of the Elihu Thomson's American Electric Company and the interests of Edwin Houston.

Thomson-Houston merged with various companies and was later led by Charles A. Coffin, a former shoe manufacturer from Lynn, Massachusetts. Mergers with competitors and the patent rights owned by each company made them in dominant in the electrical industry. As businesses expanded, it became increasingly difficult for either company to produce complete electrical installations relying solely on their own technology. In 1892, they merged with the Edison General Electric Company in a merger arranged by financier J. P. Morgan, to form the General Electric Company, with its headquarters in Schenectady, New York. Charles A. Coffin became General Electric's first president

Patent No. / Links	Description / Notes	Patent Picture
253958	ELECTRIC LAMP
Patent Class: 314/108	Inventor: Elihu Thomson Assigned To: The American Electric Company, Of New Britain Connecticut Patent Applied For: 04/09/1881 Patent Approved On: 02/21/1882 Witnesses: E. F. Peck E. W. Rice
In this patent Thomson invented a regulator which maintained the arc between two carbons without the use of dash-pots, wheel-work or the like.

Patent No. / Links	Description / Notes	Patent Picture
259017	ELECTRIC LAMP
Patent Class: 315/32	Inventor: Edwin J. Houston Assigned To: The American Electric Company, Of New Britain Connecticut Patent Applied For: 06/06/1882 Patent Approved On: 03/14/1882 Witnesses:
In this patent, Houston invented an improved lamp by forming electric connecting joints between the ends of the filaments.